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Ever since I wrote about how high magic should logically change a fantasy setting, people have been asking me how the proven existence of divine beings and life after death would change a society. This has been a much harder task; at least magic imitates existing technology in … read more »
Most principles of character likability work for a broad audience. But when a reader identifies with a character in your story, it can alter likability in ways that are difficult to predict. What’s more, every reader could identify with a different character, creating highly varied … read more »
Sometimes you have to spend conditions to make conditions. Read more »
This may surprise you, but we play video games, and often those video games have characters that we like. But why do we like those characters? What makes a character come off the screen and stick in our memory? That’s what we’re talking about today, … read more »
Most people who read our storytelling advice either appreciate the help or decide it’s not for them and move on, but there’s always someone who will accuse us of using arbitrary rules to tell them how to write their story. It has happened enough times … read more »
So you’ve read through all the articles tagged “social justice,” and you’re convinced: Bigotry is wrong. It’s evil. And it leads to lousy writing. You want to do your bit to fight bigotry with your stories. That’s highly commendable. Now you’ve come up with an … read more »
I’m writing fantasy for the first time, specifically historical fantasy, and I was wondering if I should keep the magical and mundane worlds separate like in Harry Potter, or fully integrate them like in Sorcerer to the Crown. What are the pros and cons of … read more »
Have you heard about this new thing called children? They’re a sort of small human, and everyone thinks they’re a big deal. But how do you play RPGs with them? What sort of special considerations does it take, and what kind of challenges are you … read more »
Mythcreants veterans can tell you that I talk about the dynamics of power and privilege a lot. It’s important that real people understand these dynamics, because if they don’t, they end up blaming problems on the oppressed instead of the oppressor. People operating under this misapprehension … read more »
As soon as I spotted the cover for Jonathan Renshaw’s Dawn of Wonder, The Wakening, I knew this was the book to critique. “Dawn of Wonder” is already dramatic sounding, and adding “The Wakening” pushes it into melodrama. It doesn’t help that these words border … read more »